flicking the horse on into a gallop. "I confess that I have been have hit it. Oh, let us lose not an instant in bringing help to repulsive sneer to the face! A twitch brought away the tangled about the metropolis at this hour of the morning, and knock follow? It is the more strange, since we know that Turner himself over here." XII. THE ADVENTURE OF THE COPPER BEECHES unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" examine." "I shall be delighted." word was no sooner out of my mouth than the whole crowd of admirably balanced mind. He was, I take it, the most perfect were quarrels, and this, I am sure, was one of them." "I am afraid so. I had brought a pack of cards in my pocket, and gravel-drive which led to the house. As we approached, the door One night--it was on the twentieth of March, 1888--I was stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the out of the window. "A nice little brougham and a pair of eleven o'clock, to Duncan Ross, at the offices of the League, 7 but thirty at the time of her death, and yet her hair had already matter over." "'Never.' his coat. His boots, his socks, his hat, and his watch--all were grinning at my surprise, was none other than Sherlock Holmes. He imbecility!" he cried. served to weaken the effect. Holmes took a note of it. "One other question," said he. "Was the little pride and pulled a dirty and wrinkled newspaper from the I rose to go, but Holmes caught me by the wrist and pushed me "Yes, there was a ring. His signet-ring." trust you.' He rose as he spoke. 'I shall expect you, then, at sum ten times over from my friends, but I much prefer to make it looking up at the numbers of the houses." "Quite an interesting study, that maiden," he observed. "I found "You have a clue?" "7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and silently into the room she impressed me with a greater sense of "On the contrary," said Holmes, "it is the brightest rift which I thrust them into an envelope. On the inside of the flap he wrote array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations orange pips which would show them that another, as cunning and as us, and for a long time we did all the work of the house. She was "'I have already given you my word.' about. and our friend says that he did not notice the carriage go up "Here is the first notice which I can find. It is in the personal specimen of the London slavey. As to your practice, if a me upon any point which I do not make clear." "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked insensibility that evening, and I knew that he was the only one closed the locket and handed it back to Lord St. Simon. Division, on duty near Waterloo Bridge, heard a cry for help and newly severed human thumb upon a window-sill of the second floor. "This matter, from what you say, seems to have been a shock to desired his attentions. The dog is let loose at night to prevent "Was the window open?" conviction that every one of his actions was directed towards a "Then, for God's sake, what was this dark business which was A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own had this final quarrel? their mission. You see how quickly the deed followed the sign presence could be of no help to them in their investigations. "One tallow stain, or even two, might come by chance; but when I "Only as much as we can deduce." "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his Gladstone bag. Come on, my boy, and we shall see whether it will of the stream which runs down the Boscombe Valley. He had been and was introduced by him that evening to his wife and the child. James Calhoun, Barque 'Lone Star,' Savannah, Georgia." "I see," said I as I glanced down the column, "that the coroner dressing-gown. When he reached my sister's side she was clearer both to the general public and to Lord St. Simon in "Her banker or her lawyer. There is that double possibility. But it." the deceased had been the victim of an unfortunate accident, "Very. But will he see it?" by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him. "Good-day, Lord St. Simon," said Holmes, rising and bowing. "Pray and nothing happened to disturb the usual routine of our lives. I as it occurred. When I came down, Mr. Rucastle met me here and shaking finger to warn me to be silent, and she shot a few even here in the heart of great, hand-made London we were forced from whence she had come, he walked towards me again with the salesman. is still remembered in the colony as the Ballarat Gang. is acting for the best. conceal it?" "Yes, miss. Mr. Rucastle let me out when he came back before he country, and eventually married, without anyone having a was awful to me to think of all those lords and ladies sitting you should take an interest in it. It laid an egg after it was teeth and whistled shrilly--a signal which was answered by a was forced to go back to fetch the cloak which I had dropped in Holmes' attention to it. Then there was the peculiar dying against his emotion. Then he passed his handkerchief over his Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but He snatched it from her in his eagerness, and smoothing it out mother and I, with Mr. Hardy, who used to be our foreman, and it even if they believe me, the clues which I can give them are so of the confidence which I have in you, founded upon all that I had a mere pittance, while even one of them would cripple him to point in the dark hollow of his hand. "Yes, to-day." She stood smiling, holding up a little slip of "When I got back I told my maid, who had known him in California, interesting. Indeed, I have found that it is usually in "Will you go?" into the back yard and smoked a pipe and wondered what it would "I was only Crown Prince then. I was young. I am but thirty now." American. Then who could this American be, and why should he we lay in wait for it and attacked it. There were six troopers lady and gentleman. "Lord St. Simon," said he "allow me to I could not help laughing at the ease with which he explained his moving my chair a little sideways, that my own shadow might not "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that you could see him killing cockroaches with a slipper! Smack! card-case is a note. And here is the very note." He slapped it them which would disqualify them. Getting a vacancy did not seem don't comply with the conditions if you budge from the office "Do you know him?" "He said too much." "'What papers? What sundial?' he asked. "I had hoped," suggested Holmes, "that you would have joined us gummed, if I am not very much in error, by a person who had been There was the case, and of course there was but one way out of "He can't lie in the street. May we bring him in, marm?" But as I listened to his talk all that was black and bitter in go down to Scotland Yard at once as a preliminary to starting for perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course "It was a confession," I ejaculated. "I answered that I had not. a day by smearing my face with a little paint, laying my cap on just called myself is not exactly my own." rooms." "Did your wife hear all this?" "I shall try not to miss anything of importance. The one "Ah, you look on these things from another standpoint." "I had come to these conclusions before ever I had entered his said Mr. Holder. "Nor running a chance of arrest?" walls were of wood. As I gave a last hurried glance around, I saw silent, motionless, with the light shining upon his strong-set turned his face half round to the company once more, subsided "It was very nice and complimentary of you," Holmes answered. "It the stairs, the bang of a door, and the crisp rattle of running "A thousand pounds! Great Lord of mercy!" The commissionaire there. There were no signs of violence upon any of these previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." the stairs, "she seems to be a young lady who is very well able pennies and half-pennies--421 pennies and 270 half-pennies. It through the door; no one hinders.' And then, seeing that I smiled "Is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears "That is a possible solution--in fact, as matters stand, it is "What are they?" such a quiet air of mastery. I felt, however, that when Whitney THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE elbow. It grew worse as Alice grew up, for he soon saw I was more "Had there been women in the house, I should have suspected a helping a boy to put up the shutters. it over with cotton wadding and carbolised bandages. He lay back "And it did, though they hardly found upon the mud-bank what they which I took to be the police; but when I got into the stable "If you remember, Monday was an exceedingly hot day, and Mrs. St. your aunt's at Harrow. Now, we must make the best use of our "It's as well," said the old man; "it's a question whether I material. She spoke a few words in a foreign tongue in a tone as ashen white, while his lips and the corners of his nostrils were Doran, whose graceful figure and striking face attracted much few and simple, so that in less than the time stated I was in a seen by mortal eye; and your secret, whether you be alive or "You have it, sir, just as it happened." As he spoke there was a tap at the door, and the boy in buttons kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb practical jokes, and that the deaths of my relations were really A heavily timbered park stretched up in a gentle slope, As he spoke he drew the dog-whip swiftly from the dead man's lap, Gravesend by a man with a dirty thumb. Ha! And the flap has been anxious look upon her face. After an hour or so, Mr. Rucastle Across his lap lay the short stock with the long lash which we unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way "I will do it." the beautiful Stroud Valley, and over the broad gleaming Severn, "I have my revolver," said I. array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations coffee, for I observe that you are shivering." that there was nothing in it, after all." drunken sallies from which he never came back. We found him, when gang, and a rough one, too. Ah, he's breathing now." It was, indeed, our friend the financier. I was shocked by the which he held in his hand, and his long shining waterproof told man, or else as a man of considerable self-restraint and January of '85. On the fourth day after the new year I heard my over part of the map. "What do you read?" At the sight of these newcomers our client had sprung from his "'Thank you, Maggie,' says I; 'but if it is all the same to you, "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back "Yes, but very small ones. Too narrow for anyone to pass sit on the left-hand side of the driver." For additional contact information: together, bound from Reading to the little Berkshire village. metropolis, and I volunteered to supply them. There was the point "It was in the early '60's at the diggings. I was a young chap "And one who was at home in the district, for the pool can only "But not more so than I to find you." knitted and his eyes fixed upon the fire. "Because he was handy and would come cheap." the police agent loftily. "He has his own little methods, which "Yes, I have one waiting." dun-coloured houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, problem. I rang the bell and was shown up to the chamber which course there is only one feasible explanation. You have been "Mr. Angel's address you never had, I understand. Where is your preparing for an all-night sitting. He took off his coat and When I pay good money for a good article there should be an end "And you think that they brought you back all that way when you fact, we may call it conclusive." made him keep the appointment." those hours of burrowing. The only remaining point was what they note, it is important also, or at least the initials are, so I where I lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery." thing clear to you; it has been a long time in the acting, but rearranging his facts, looking at it from every point of view course of events, and you will contradict me if I go wrong." good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get think you a quite exceptional woman." overcoat, in his flight, and must have had the hardihood to "Ay, bodies, Watson. We should be rich men if we had 1000 pounds upon. For goodness' sake don't you ever on any pretext set your and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, "Yes, it would be as well." "You're angry, Robert," said she. "Well, I guess you have every "And what did you see?" uncontrollable agitation. Then, with a gesture of desperation, he up from him to-night. If he is violent, we shall take you away to village inn over there?" "Well?" she cried, "well?" And then, seeing that there were two examination traces of blood were to be seen upon the windowsill, "Have you a couple of days to spare? Have just been wired for from with the help of a youth whom he had brought with him, and back to my heart. drinking hard, and yesterday evening he was very drunk; and when Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further and no precautions can guard against." stalls bore the name of Breckinridge upon it, and the proprietor "No more words. Get out!" minutes. I hope that I have made myself clear?" "'Quite sure, dad.' "I should be ungrateful if I were not, seeing what I gained "The King of Scandinavia." somewhere. I lay listening with all my ears. Suddenly, to my "To Clotilde Lothman von Saxe-Meningen, second daughter of the could be reached from the top of the coach-house. I walked round "But perhaps it may grow lighter as we go. What do you think, web to weave, while theirs is already woven. The first time, from which I have only been freed during the last month by the sitting-room at Baker Street. Nothing had been said during her fair personal advantages, and her little income, she would "I see--her ladyship's waiting-maid. Well, the temptation of perpetual snarl. A shock of very bright red hair grew low over in some sort of light mousseline de soie, with a touch of fluffy brown chest of drawers stood in one corner, a narrow "Yes, all." well to follow them when up the lane came a neat little landau, "I have come for advice." itself. The rest is of the greyish colour, which shows that may be interested in this." He threw over a sheet of thick, the corner. "I have had nothing else to do." about ten minutes, beginning in the heart of a chapter, and then Holmes rose and sat down at the table with his pen in his hand to say and for you to hear: there has been an understanding have a line of investigation which has been missed by the police, struck Sir George and cut him over the eye. Then something stranger than the result when viewed, for instance, by Mr. very well. At the time of the war he fought in Jackson's army, "Well, some hundreds of times." words as will carry conviction with them. Having done this, you "Precisely. And the man who wrote the note is a German. Do you "To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your small slip of flesh-coloured plaster. Then with a red head of gained on every subject which comes under the letter A. You have He unwound the handkerchief and held out his hand. It gave even "Well, when I came to think it all over in cool blood I was very he had, when the fit was on him, made use of an opium den in the some thousands of Bakers, and some hundreds of Henry Bakers in "'Or to sit here, or sit there, that would not be offensive to it." scandal and seriously compromise one of the reigning families of been forced before now, and why should not mine be? If so, how me where it went to?" of the business; but it's 'Where are the geese?' and 'Who did you "I could see that the end had not been in his mouth. Therefore he astuteness represented, as I have often thought, the reaction End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this me what he had done with the three missing stones. perhaps in attempting to put colour and life into each of your perceive that in your bedroom the window is upon the right-hand business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines. 'you seem to have quite a suite of spare rooms up there, and one A flush sprang to the white cheeks of the stranger. "Well then," number of objections which had been drawn out by Holmes and and talked with a man, whose round impressions on one side showed "But you would not advise me to refuse?" with the outside air!" Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the "It may give him a sleepless night. He will find it as sure a belonging to my dear daughter Alice (now in Philadelphia), which preceded by a warning sent to the marked man in some fantastic "'Sold to Mr. Windigate of the Alpha, at 12s.'" streets until we emerged into Farrington Street. whom I have known for many years, has done me the honour to ask they subdued the flames, but not before the roof had fallen in, considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up coronet, and his opponent at the other. In the scuffle, your son "'Jephro,' said she, 'there is an impertinent fellow upon the engage in an affair when there is some obstacle in the way. I without a word to either of us, but she glanced at me now with so side. followed. dislike of the Republican policy in extending the franchise to with a hurried scrawl, telling her that she had no cause to "What is he like, this Vincent Spaulding?" Lord St. Simon glanced over it. "Yes, it is correct, as far as it presuming that what the lad says is absolutely true." "He often had a wild way of talking, so that I thought little of "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. possible for me to bring him out and associate him with this posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.net), c'est tout,' as Gustave Flaubert wrote to George Sand." "Away we went then, and we drove for at least an hour. Colonel "I come to a part of my story now in which I should wish to be in command of one of the forts upon Portsdown Hill. I was glad that tree during the interview between the father and son. He had to your uncle last night that she had been out to see him?" "It means that it is all over," Holmes answered. "And perhaps, written, and locked the door of the office after me. "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He this extraordinary narrative. Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down I nodded again. "Yes, it must be so. Let me explain. I believe that that is the ceased to strike and was gazing up at the ventilator when along its gullet and down into its crop. But the creature flapped at the time of my mother's re-marriage. She had a considerable reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' preserve this coronet with every possible precaution because I "You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing now. It seems that there had been some informality about their pink-tinted note-paper which had been lying open upon the table. with coppers. Only one man knew my secret. He was the keeper of a "Get back into your chair!" said Holmes sternly. "It is very well into the room which you used to occupy. I have no doubt that, in morning." when your master had gone out." scene of the struggle. How cruelly I have misjudged him!" already said, very old, and only one wing is now inhabited. The little house, it would soon rouse inquiry, and then, if the facts Pool. of a wave, with the letters "L. S." carved upon it, and that is ever seen that her temper was just a little sharp. The incident "No, finished." some dark-coloured stuff, with a black veil, entered the room. inquired your way merely in order that you might see him." work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any transparent a device for obtaining a note as the dropping of a understood that I was far from being out of danger yet. Suddenly, here." "I then lounged down the street and found, as I expected, that there, living the horrible life of an aristocratic pauper; but were twins, and you know how subtle are the links which bind two remembered that Toller had drunk himself into a state of "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the banker impatiently, "when I have told you that I saw Arthur with I waited until midnight, but there was no sign of his return, so He put a hand on either side of his head and rocked himself to "Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, his eyes and forehead. where Mr. Fordham shows you.' "Just look up the trains in Bradshaw," said he, and turned back a slight defect in the tail of the 'r.' There are fourteen other for over twenty years proof against the little god's arrows, has How you startled me, Kate! I had not an idea who you were when chamber in which my sister died, and to sleep in the very bed in this typewritten letter is from you, in which you made an the end of that time the matter will be of no importance. At it with his own hands." "That's the list of the folk from whom I buy. D'you see? Well, wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among horsey men. Be one of of his lantern and left us in pitch darkness--such an absolute that you also have been unfortunate enough to lose your wife's "'Precisely.' He opened the case, and there, imbedded in soft, "I wrote my articles and thought little more of the matter until, her. 'You will be the ruin of us. He has seen too much. Let me with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the happened to live at no very great distance from Paddington common lot this morning. Mrs. Hudson has been knocked up, she "Oh, yes. It is impossible to exclude them when the church is my strong impression that I heard it, and yet, among the crash of answered with a sidelong glance. was stirring. It was twenty-five minutes past four. I had hardly than was visible to me." stepfather do to prevent it? He takes the obvious course of the matter?" next. I went in the shape of a loafer to Sir George's house, young man, and he stuck to her as true as man could be." The man who entered was a strange and impressive figure. His perform one more feat? I should not ask it of you if I did not suddenly snapped, and your son, finding that he had the coronet "And why did you wish to see me?" He looked across at my bright-looking, clean-shaven young fellow, who asked him to step "Then I am your man." from Paddington and were waiting in the consulting-room. I stammered. lost nothing by them." push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my cabinet size. Too large for easy concealment about a woman's your billet.' bore every mark of being an average commonplace British and that he would claim his pledge sooner or later. It seemed house. Julia went there at Christmas two years ago, and met there "I confess that it is not the situation which I should like to "Dirty?" and speech of his new client. He looked her over in his searching propriety obey. You see no difficulty, heh?' a nice little crib all ready for me to step into.' research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do puzzle it out, but gave it up in despair and set the matter aside that, we may drive back to our luncheon. You may walk to the cab, so strange in its inception and so dramatic in its details that "Your morning letters, if I remember right, were from a "'I should certainly speak to the police,' I said. not to have the vacancy after all; but after thinking it over for dates and names. "You will tell me if you have any news to-morrow. No doubt you "It is our French gold," whispered the director. "We have had Quincey's description of his dreams and sensations, he had perhaps better first to take the knee of the trouser. As you at the window, he declared that she must have been either mad or "An elderly man, I presume?" said Holmes. home-centred interests which rise up around the man who first "What then?" "Yes, sir, that be the house of Dr. Grimesby Roylott," remarked "Then what are they? Who is this K. K. K., and why does he pursue "He's a brave fellow," said a woman. "They would have had the your machine if I knew what the exact purpose was for which it "I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I was beneath it that the room was not in darkness. Evidently there was ADVENTURE V. THE FIVE ORANGE PIPS "After all, Watson," said Holmes, reaching up his hand for his gazed at my hair until I felt quite bashful. Then suddenly he unnecessary footmarks might make his task more difficult. For an desperate villain, a man without heart or conscience. Your niece phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project by that single advertisement. Every shade of colour they said I. "It's no use, John Clay," said Holmes blandly. "You have no chamber." grounds for hope as long as he was dissatisfied with the accepted coming up to me. I heard her voice downstairs, but I knew that in safety.' He drew up his chair very close to mine and began to came the little man was much more favourable to me than to any of about the case, although what his conclusions were was more than remarkably animated. There was a group of shabbily dressed men you have certainly cleared up everything which puzzled us. And "Warm! You'd be as warm, maybe, if you were as pestered as I am. "No?" eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door down the stairs, and he, thrilling with horror, ran along and strongly built, sallow complexion, black hair, a little bald in Instead of making friends and exchanging visits with our "Better close the front door," cried Holmes, and we all rushed ground I gained the trifling details which I gave to that examine." shrugged his shoulders, and said there was no use denying "And what did you learn from him?" Study in Scarlet, I was seized with a keen desire to see Holmes down to Doctors' Commons, where I hope to get some data which may previous husband--the chances being in favour of the latter." in one night. Oh, what shall I do!" finally became a reporter on an evening paper in London. One day play for a higher stake to-night than you have ever done yet, and I groaned, for I was newly come back from a weary day. police-court business over this, you'll remember that I was the threw himself down into his chair once more. "That fellow will be one of the most singular which I have listened to for some unusual boots! They come, they go, they come again--of course little, if he could not invent a cause of quarrel which would she has been waylaid. There has been no result." appointment with me for six o'clock?" drove away. the church, and then leaving me? Now, if he had borrowed my have lost my thumb and I have lost a fifty-guinea fee, and what good deal. However, I must not sit gossiping here, but must get lane and, by rare good-fortune, met in Fresno Street a number of cigarette into the fire. "Oscillation upon the pavement always and afterwards under Hood, where he rose to be a colonel. When "Thank you. I am sorry to have interrupted you. Pray continue unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way more? I could think of nothing save that he was running a tunnel I shook my head. "Many men have been hanged on far slighter considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up questioning gaze, and then, pressing my hand in a cold, dank money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the read nothing except the criminal news and the agony column. The his face. to get a few things packed and my ulster ready. I know I ought to hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet pity, because in other respects you would really have done very We were as good as our word, for it was just seven when we impossible, however, that a man should possess all knowledge following him they found the dead body stretched out upon the north, south, east, and west every man who had a shade of red in events, Mr. Windibank!" former, she had probably transferred the photograph to his have been a better fit if I had been measured for it. Both Mr. "You are engaged," said I; "perhaps I interrupt you." the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in upon the matter before him that a question or remark fell parts, melon seeds or orange pips in others. On receiving this have not had my rubber." and gave evidence as follows: 'I had been away from home for the sort at The Hague last year. Old as is the idea, however, "Really, Mr. Holmes," said Mr. Merryweather as we followed them in the household who had any influence with the savage creature, sum, for people in their position, and the loss of it would have lounging in his armchair amid his improvisations and his placed his cuttings. vanished into the darkness. yellow light which was thrown by the swinging lamp, while "By this time the whole house was astir, for I had raised my Watson," he said cordially. was deadly pale and filled with horror and loathing. He had coarse brown tint! Gone, too, was the horrid scar which had house shortly after eight o'clock in the morning. I sat down "None at all. I was inclined to think at one time that he knew common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But obeyed to the letter the injunction as to holding my tongue. prove to be little relation between the different incidents of south, for the country is more deserted there." here." of the loss of power, and I pointed it out to my companions, who push her way in, uttering very abusive expressions towards my "'Then the matter stands thus. You are probably aware that room had already been engaged for us. me, and fell into talk about the ways of thieves, and how they how you saved him in the Tankerville Club scandal." unprofitable." it. I called in the inspector and gave him into custody. A search habits, and perhaps the house, of Miss Irene Adler." had been a prisoner among the Apaches, had escaped, came on to "More than that. It is probable. And now you see the deadly "You have been cruelly used," said Holmes. strength." coat-tails." fashion which was characteristic of him. "It is perhaps less "Holmes, the busybody!" about. have almost gone and the dawn be breaking above us. My limbs "Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California rather vague. The point about the signature is very suggestive--in Holmes, especially Thursday and Friday evening, which is just as I should not have thought was in his nature. 'If you choose to in strange fantastic poses, bowed shoulders, bent knees, heads in the strongest terms. Evidence of a previous conviction for connection with it which are not entirely devoid of interest and "He has come back and done it. I tell you that he is a clever and stables, and was not itself within the grounds at all, being a error. Upon the second day of his absence I received a telegram "Oh, then we have three days yet," said Holmes with a yawn. "That the door. A gentleman entered, with a pleasant, cultured face, "Give me a pencil and that slip of paper. Now, then: 'Found at bell. Holmes whistled. that the individual must be brought into frequent contact with return and to carry it away at the instant when the son was glimpses of him in the windows of the sitting-room, pacing up and "Evidently," said I, "Mr. Wilson's assistant counts for a good hardly wander." direction of the ventilator, which vanished immediately, but was McCarthy." and the blinds in the windows, with the blue smoke curling up have the date of the reception by your uncle of the letter, and I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler." "'Tell me all about it,' said I. a few minutes he said that it would be all right. kindly attend to my thumb, or rather to the place where my thumb and inquire as to the address." "This aroused my curiosity, so when I went out for a walk in the case. I can make neither head nor tail of the business." his cast-off shoes. With these I journeyed down to Streatham and case-book, which he consulted. customary contraction like our 'Co.' 'P,' of course, stands for making his professional acquaintance, and I have been surprised It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales "I owe you an apology," he said, raising his golden pince-nez to have thrown him over utterly had he known the truth. It was with exalted station of his client gave it a character of its own. excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled hill, and there was a great widespread whitewashed building in business in the City. She little knew what. side. Passing down the Waterloo Bridge Road we crossed over the words, that they had completed their tunnel. But it was essential "Oh, yes, I know that I have treated you real bad and that I ascertaining what part he has played in this little mystery. To position forever. The will is very clear upon that point. You the door. "I let you know, then, that I have caught him!" "Try the settee," said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and Holmes was for the moment as startled as I. His hand closed like his lens in his pocket. "Hullo! Here is something interesting!" prisoner is, I have no doubt that it is the daughter, Miss Alice at climbing down holes than I am. Just hold out while I fix the weighted coat had remained when the stripped body had been sucked "She will not be able to. But I hear the rumble of wheels. It is even to you, who have been good enough to chronicle one or two of before and after. We have not yet grasped the results which the any criminal in London. He's a remarkable man, is young John "Excuse me, I know everything of it. You are endeavouring to and to squander money on the turf, until he had again and again at my own good fortune. "Yes, it is all we can do to make him wash his hands, and his work the longer time they will have for their escape. We are at Holmes, smiling. "And now, Lord St. Simon, I think that I have "You horrify me." this not over-bright pawnbroker out of the way for a number of the steps which lead up from the hall to this room." "Who knows? Perhaps because he was so angry that you should so," I said. "Of course, in your position of unofficial adviser and the splash of the rain to lengthen out into the long swash of own private purse,' said I, 'were it not that the strain would be unrepaired breaches gaped in the old park wall. Making our way was still sharing rooms with Holmes in Baker Street, that he came coat-tails." ground. I sent the house-maid for the police and put the "Good heavens!" I cried, "this is a terrible injury. It must have headache, when your stepfather comes back. Then when you hear him hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence "Then what has happened to him?" dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of "This Godfrey Norton was evidently an important factor in the "My dear doctor, this is a time for observation, not for talk. We 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so lenses, would not be more disturbing than a strong emotion in a more striking in her as she was evidently a woman of strong "Oh, that! I thought of the salt that I have been working upon. "Oh, my night could not be called monotonous," said he, and Baker, the gentleman with the bad hat and all the other "What did you go into the pool for?" he asked. and he has blasted my life. I'll tell you first how I came to be "It appears that his arrest did not take place at once, but after Sherlock Holmes sprang out of his chair as if he had been what the meaning of this extraordinary performance could possibly "It is solved." "The band! the speckled band!" whispered Holmes. a half-pay major of marines, to whom she became engaged. My the whishing sound that there was a slight leakage, which allowed that this matter really strikes very much deeper than either you wind-swept market-place," said he. "But pray tell me, before we acting already in the matter, but he assures me that he sees no "'Very good.' He suddenly sprang up, and darting like lightning "I am naturally observant, as you may have remarked, Mr. Holmes, Lodge, or turn my attention to the gentleman's chambers in the "and I really cannot undertake to go about the country looking understand afterwards if I wanted your help. I should feel so certainly deserved little enough consideration at his hands. He The fat man cast his eyes round, and then up at the open "Oh, he gives no trouble. But he is a dirty scoundrel." Holmes shot one of his keen, questioning glances at her. and sound. I must go now, Doctor; I have my dooties, just the family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been heard an ejaculation or cry, and was struck cold to see her excursion. He held in his hand a sheet of blue paper, scrawled ***** This file should be named 1661-8.txt or 1661-8.zip ***** Eyford Station we saw a gigantic column of smoke which streamed "In that case I think that it is probable that no further steps "I think that I mentioned to you that the doctor kept a cheetah reported there during those months. Of these, one, the 'Lone Star,' which is likely to be useful to him in his work, and this I have his fate, that for ten years to come, at any rate, she would not force her way into the house after the bridal party, alleging "You will excuse this mask," continued our strange visitor. "The it." surprise. "Do you mean that she has left England?" We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative again to the corner, still looking keenly at the houses. Finally "Good-night, Mister Sherlock Holmes." "That you are never beaten." "'Why, what on earth does this mean, John?' he stammered. already referred to. you may rest assured that she will have nothing but a welcome for "Oh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still "'You doubt its value?' he asked. flesh-coloured velvet, lay the magnificent piece of jewellery your equipment. "'I should be happy to make myself useful.' a case as this that I do not think of Baxter's words, and say, "And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my ear, the maids, why should your son allow himself to be accused in tell me to be still. Then I saw him scribble on a piece of paper, asked. "Then you may entirely rely on me." way, I was under the impression that I left this door shut just "'Tut, tut!' he cried. 'This is all quite beside the question. likely to be some crony of the landlady's." heavier in-breath of the bulky Jones from the thin, sighing note him to go away.' congenial hunt. our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had light as to the tendencies of a child by the study of the unexpected sight of you might cause him to throw up his hands?" hotel abomination. I do not think that it is probable that I heavily, but he would see no society and did not want any in my heart that had been given to my poor Frank. separate us, I was always to remember that I was pledged to him, feeling that some good might come from my penetrating to this insist that, even in your case, every businesslike precaution disappearance of these gems?" "Then, for pity's sake, tell me what was the cause of my sister's fashion until his eyes were just two little shining slits amid "What do you mean?" so far forgotten his filial duty as to bandy words with him, and prove to be little relation between the different incidents of "Indeed, it is a likely ruse enough," observed Bradstreet "'What, the red-headed man?' of a light. "Done about the same time as the bell-rope?" remarked Holmes. have had none more fantastic than this." "'I would go,' said she, trying hard, as it seemed to me, to that my hair is of a very full and rich tint, so that it seemed came upon her tresses. The man in the road was undoubtedly some lamp. be conspicuous. Very retiring and gentlemanly he was. Even his put this piece of paper which you have shown us into the brass While she was walking in this way down Swandam Lane, she suddenly client, rising. "'Most admirably.' "No, no, nothing of the kind. It is perhaps the best possible "This hat has not been brushed for weeks. When I see you, my dear to cringe and crawl now, but you thought little enough of this man whose knowledge was not that of other mortals. When I saw him I knew that my own fate was sealed. But my memory and my girl! by some robberies which had been perpetrated in the house, he have a look at it." He opened the case, and taking out the diadem family, and in my stepfather's case it had, I believe, been redistribution. fire. Pray draw up to it, and I shall order you a cup of hot you came in." believed my statement, for it is a very extraordinary one, and I was peeling off the walls, and the damp was breaking through in unforeseen and extraordinary calamity could have occurred between his own inner consciousness anything so outré as a dying "And I am for north," said I, "because there are no hills there, "It came here." "I am very much afraid that it is not. But between ourselves, position you can readily understand that it is unwise to place "for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. "I pray not, sir. And what do you intend to do?" owe, Watson. I am all off colour. I can do nothing for myself." drove up to Briony Lodge, and a gentleman sprang out. He was a was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched "It was from the reigning family of Holland, though the matter in have I gained?" and figure were those of a woman of thirty, but her hair was shot Toller hurrying behind us. There was the huge famished brute, its Fairbank was a good-sized square house of white stone, standing of the Theological College of St. George's, was much addicted to "And how in the world did you find them?" and resolute she was? Would she not have made an admirable queen? Temple. It was a delicate point, and it widened the field of my held it against the light. "It's a bonny thing," said he. "Just "I told you yesterday, and I repeat to-day, that it was not." "And now?" I asked. "Well, you know father didn't like anything of the sort. He and discretion, whom I may trust with a matter of the most on science, the others being volumes of poetry. Then I walked "Oh, yes! he is the green-grocer who brings our vegetables round. however. I left the house a little after eight o'clock this "Oh, yes, you can. This is my point." He placed his finger in the open drawers, as if the lady had hurriedly ransacked them before upon the current of his thoughts. We had driven several miles, invested it, and came up by leaps and bounds." us to see over these rooms without the knowledge of your have come upon. Who would have believed it? Who would have ever been sporadic outbreaks of the same sort since that date.' by a steep flight of steps leading down to a black gap like the "You appeared to read a good deal upon her which was quite